Brussels, 17/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday the European Commission published the 8th edition of the State Aid Scoreboard introduced in 2001, which shows that the overall level of national State aid granted by the 10 new Member States was estimated at an annual average of € 5.7 billion between 2000 and the end of 2003 compared with the €34 billion spent by the EU 15 Member States in 2002 (EUROPE yesterday p 16). During these four years, the level of state aid increased considerably each year, from EUR 4 bn in 200 to EUR 7.8 bn in 2003. The most spectacular increases were Czech Republic (€1.9 billion) for the banking sector and the restructuring of the Polish coal sector (€3.9 billion in 2003). The three largest economies of the new Member States were the most generous in absolute terms. Poland granted the biggest amount (average of €2.4 billion a year), followed by the Czech Republic (€1.9 billion) and Hungary (€0.6 billion). On average, State aid in the new Member States amounted to 1.42% of GDP over the period 2000-2003. The Commission's report, however, considers that if certain measures introduced gradually were withdrawn from these figures (in compliance with the arrangements negotiated in the accession treaty), the average would drop to 0.67% of GDP.
The Lisbon strategy calls n Member States to reduce the amount of state aid to shift the emphasis from "supporting individual companies towards increasing Europe's competitiveness through aid to research and development, environment, cohesion and other horizontal policy objectives”. In this respect, aid for horizontal objectives accounted for around 22% of total aid in the new Member States compared with 73% in the EU-15 in 2002. However, "it is encouraging to note that the vast majority of aid measures qualifying as existing aid and thus continuing after accession are earmarked for horizontal objectives", affirms the Commission.
Sharp disparities exist between the ten new Member States. Malta (3.86 %), Cyprus (2.85 %) and the Czech Republic (2.8%), which as a level of state aid were significantly higher in terms of percentage of GDP. Nevertheless, these high figures do not necessarily reflect a more lenient attitude to controlling state aid in these countries. The Commission report explained that each of these countries experienced specific difficulties (banking crises, restructuring of heavy industry etc). On the other hand, the Baltic States (Estonia 0.11%, Lithuania 0.24% and Latvia 0.26%) with around 0.2 % well below the EU-15 average of GDP. If the proportion of state aid per head is taken into account, the situation is different. Slovakia can be placed with the Baltic states below the EUR 94 per head of the population average in the EU-15. The average in the ten new countries for 2000-03 was EUR 150 per head of the population but with quite glaring disparities: 601 euros in Malta, 497 euros in Cyprus, 386 euros in the Czech Republic, 127 euros in Poland, 114 in Hungary, 100 in Slovenia, 51 in Slovakia, 22 in Latvia, 21 in Lithuania and 10 euros in Estonia.
The state aid scoreboard can be consulted on the Commission's "competitiveness" website at: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/competition/state_aid/scoreboard/index_fr.html.